Affiliation:
1. Europa-University Flensburg, Department for Pluralist Economics; Johannes Kepler University Linz, Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy (ICAE); ZOE. Institute for Future-Fit Economies, Cologne, Germany
2. Department for Economic, Welfare and Social Policy, Linz
3. Institute for International Economic Studies, Austria; Johannes Kepler University Linz, Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy (ICAE)
4. Institute for International Economic Studies, Austria; Johannes Kepler University Linz
5. Institute for International Economic Studies, Austria; Johannes Kepler University Linz; Institute for Socio-Economics, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany
Abstract
By studying the factors underlying differences in trade performance across
European economies, this paper derives six different ?trade models? for 22
EU countries and explores their developmental and distributional dynamics.
We first introduce a typology of trade models by clustering countries on the
basis of four key dimensions of trade performance: endowments, technological
specialisation, labour market characteristics and regulatory requirements.
The resulting clusters comprise countries that base their export success on
similar trade models. Our results indicate the existence of six different
trade models: the ?primary goods model? (Latvia, Estonia), the ?finance
model? (Luxembourg), the ?flexible labour market model? (UK), the ?periphery
model? (Greece, Portugal, Spain, Italy, France), the ?industrial workbench
model? (Slovenia, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic), and the
?hightech model? (Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, Finland,
Germany and Austria). Subsequently, we provide a comparative analysis of the
economic development and trends in inequality across these trade models.
Inter alia, we observe a shrinking wage share and increasing personal income
inequality in most of them, yet find that the ?high-tech model? is an
exceptional case, being characterised by relatively stable economic
development and an institutional setting that managed to counteract rising
inequality.
Publisher
National Library of Serbia
Subject
General Economics, Econometrics and Finance